2012, I sure hope the Mayan's are right!

For those of you not paying that much attention, 2012 is vast approaching. Some archeologists and soothsayers out in the ether claim the Mayan calendar runs out sometime in December of 2012 and that this will mark the end of the world. While I am not a learned scholar of such things, I have watched enough History Channel, TLC and Discovery Channel to come to the conclusion that the Mayan's were talking about the end of an Era, not the end of the world itself, and I for one hope they are right.

And I will even give them props for getting so close to January 2013, the time when Obama will be leaving office. Not a bad estimation when you are separated by millennium from such an event. Yes my friends, we are coming to what I hope is the end of an Era, oh hell, let's call it an Epoch, that sounds even more betterer. (that sentence is for those readers who lack the sophistication to follow along. I want everyone to understand what I'm saying)

The Epoch we are leaving (hopefully) is the "Governmental Nannyism Age", and it has been right up there with the Bronze Age, the Stone Age and the Iron Age for fundamentally changing human life.

To the best of my limited training I find that this age came about with the Romans. Many a Roman has been quoted over the centuries complaining about the people being able to vote for themselves increases from the public treasury. Many of our Founding Fathers have been quoted in the same light. But none could have foresaw the absolute unprecedented way in which it has manifested itself in the last 60 years.

It's been a "Spend-a-palooza" since FDR that has not stopped or even had the brakes applied. LBJ actually put the whole mess into over-drive with the Great Society. (Sidebar: Hey, where you work, how long do they let a really bad idea continue before someone calls it a failure and the company either turns in a new direction or they shutter the doors?) Deals to reduce spending have of course been made. Reagan made a deal with Tip O'Neal in the 80's to give him his tax cuts and in exchange, Congress would cut spending to match. Only problem was, revenue started to pour in at an alarming rate as a result after two years and Congress forgot about the deal apparently and could not spend that money fast enough. Clinton agreed with House and Senate Republicans to balance the budget before he left office (like him or hate him or agree or disagree with the math that balanced that budget on the back of Social Security, he did come to the table albeit kicking and screaming) but the economy was weak. Bush did what he saw others do and cut taxes, and it was working. Then along came 9/11 almost 10 years ago and two wars and in 2006, Nancy Pelosi and Democratic control of the House again... This country just can't catch a break sometimes.

But today we have different elements at play. We have the Tea Party and the pressure they are exuding over the GOP in Congress at the moment. This represents a more intrinsic popular control over the process than we have seen in my lifetime. (unlike many, I know there was history before me.. and to those of you I lost with the word "intrinsic", sorry I can't carry you all the way there, do some homework) I did some digging and what I have found is that at no time in US history (brief as it is on the world historical stage) no country on Earth has ever had this kind of money nor this kind of debt nor offered this much in free stuff to the people it supposedly represents. Lets face it, Rome never had to deal in Billions of dollars let alone Trillions. And the Founding Fathers, hell millions were still in play up until this century.

So what might a new Epoch in world history look like? Europe is a good example of what it might look like. Over the pond they are starting to look very hard at the dollars and sense (yes I mean sense not cents) of all that money they are spending to provide everything from free college education to free health care (all of which are not actually free). Austerity programs are now in place in a majority of the European Unions governments. For those of you doing homework following this, "In economics, austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided." -Wikipedia

Could America employ such measures following the Obama Administrations toileting of the US economy? I believe with certainty that this is coming to a government near you in the very near future. Today we carry a 14-17 Trillion dollar debt as a people with another 100 Trillion in unfunded mandates that go by the names of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and Obama Care, all of which are hanging out there with no funds to run them. I think Austerity is a pretty good bet following 2012.

Let's be honest, when this country was founded it was founded a number of simple principals, one of which was that we had a chance to get it right in this new land. Newsflash folks, we have been all the way around this big ole' rock we call earth and there is no place left to "start fresh". We have no choice but to fix this problem in the here and now.

I have found that mankind works best when placed under the threat of it all coming apart. WWII is a good example of how mankind got their crap together long enough to fix the Hitler and Japan issues. Why? Because we had no place else to go. Well today I believe we have no place else to go again. We aren't ready to build moon or Mars bases where we could try it all again, getting it right as we go along. I don't think aliens from another planet have any interest in the mess we have created for ourselves and if they are out there they probably look at us and think, "What the hell are they doing?".

No, the Mayan's talked about a new conscientiousness coming into play, an awakening if you will. What could be more eye opening than "Oh Crap?! We're broke!"

But what would I know; I'm just an Average American...